ARINC 629 is a multi-transmitter, shared-bus protocol used for aeronautical and aviation communications networks. Existing optical fiber designs for ARINC 629 require major modification and recertification of the line replaceable units (LRU) with the introduction of fiber optic components that may be used to reduce weight, volume and installation effort, e.g., transmit and receive fiber optic serial interface modules (FOSIM) and changes in the LRU connector to accommodate glass optical fiber. Glass optical fiber is also difficult to install and maintain in an airplane environment due to special handling, small misalignment tolerance, and dust contamination on small diameter glass core.
While ARINC 629 may be one of the safest data bus protocols for critical aircraft control applications, deployment of the ARINC 629 standard has been limited because of the extra weight, bulk, equipment and installation effort associated with the ARINC 629 electrical physical layer.
It would be advantageous to provide an optical fiber solution for ARINC 629 that requires no modification to LRUs subscribing to ARINC 629 data buses, and that eliminates much of the extra weight, bulk, equipment and installation effort associated with the current ARINC 629 electrical physical layer.